Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a documentary filmmaker and wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, nearly cried out in tears from the witness stand Monday when she told a court that Harvey Weinstein raped her in a hotel room and spoke of the devastating effects it had on her. her. the 17 years since then. “He knows this isn’t normal!” she shouted during the Los Angeles trial, recalling her thoughts amid the alleged rape in 2005. “She knows this is not consent!” He then shouted “Oh God!” as if overcome by memory, and gave way to weeping. Weinstein watched from the defense table. Siebel Newsom said she unexpectedly found herself alone with Weinstein in a suite at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills, where she had agreed to join him for a meeting. She said she assumed others would be present and talk about her career. When he came out of the bathroom in a robe with nothing underneath and began groping her while masturbating, she described her feelings. “Horror! Horror!” he said. “I’m shaking. I’m like a rock, I’m frozen. This is my worst nightmare. I’m just this blow-up doll!” She then gave a graphic account of being sexually assaulted and raped by Weinstein in the suite’s bedroom. Weinstein’s lawyers, who cross-examined her only briefly and will resume on Tuesday, say the two had consensual sex and that she sought to use the powerful producer to advance her career.
First met in Toronto
Weinstein is already serving a 23-year sentence for a rape conviction in New York and has pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of rape and sexual assault in California involving five women. Siebel Newsom is the fourth woman Weinstein has accused of sexually assaulting who took the stand in Los Angeles. Her testimony was the most dramatic and emotional so far in the three-week trial. She cried throughout her 2½ hours on the stand, starting when she was asked to identify the 70-year-old Weinstein for the record. “He’s wearing a suit and a blue tie and he’s staring at me,” she said as tears began to flow. WATCHES | What’s at stake in the Harvey Weinstein trial in California:
Harvey Weinstein faces trial for sexual assault in Los Angeles
Convicted sex offender and former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein faces his second sexual assault trial, this time in Los Angeles. He faces 11 more charges and life in prison if convicted. Now 48, Siebel Newsom described how Weinstein first approached her to introduce herself at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2005. At the time, she was a producer and actress with only a few small roles and he was at the height of his Hollywood power. . She said that when they had a drink later in the day he was ‘charming’ and showed ‘genuine interest in talking about my work’. He was in the Los Angeles area a few weeks later, stopped by her house during a small party to drop off a gift, and invited her to meet at the hotel.
“I felt so violated”
She described how nervous she was after being led to his hotel suite. Asked by Deputy District Attorney Marlene Martinez why she didn’t quit, she said: “Because you don’t say no to Harvey Weinstein.” Afterwards, she said she felt “so ashamed”. “I was so violated and I don’t know how this happened,” she said through tears. “I didn’t see the signs and I didn’t know how to escape.” Siebel Newsom is known as Jane Doe #4 in the lawsuit, and like the others Weinstein is accused of rape or sexual assault, she is not being named in court. But both the prosecution and the defense have identified her as the governor’s wife during the trial, and her attorney Siebel Newsom has confirmed to the Associated Press and other news outlets that she is Jane Doe #4. WATCHES | Powerful men in all industries have faced consequences, charges in the last 5 years:
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Five years after its launch, the Me Too movement left no industry untouched by allegations of sexual misconduct that surfaced as women began to speak out about their experiences. The AP does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they have come forward publicly. Weinstein has had a number of famous accusers, including A-list actors, since he became a magnet for the #MeToo movement in 2017. But none of the women who told their stories in the trial had anywhere near the prominence of Sybel Newsom, his wife of the man who last week won a second term as governor of the nation’s most populous state and may run for the White House. The governor was not in the courtroom Monday.
Newsom returned donations
During cross-examination, Weinstein’s attorney Mark Werksman repeatedly pressed Sybel Newsom about when she told her husband about the assault, noting in a transcript of a 2020 interview with prosecutors that she said Newsom was “maybe » the first person who said. He said he “dropped hints along the way” over the years after meeting Newsom when he was mayor of San Francisco. He got a full accounting when the women’s stories about Weinstein became widespread in 2017, he said, and would return old political donations from Weinstein then. California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Jennifer Siebel Newsom laugh as they take a break from midterm voting and spot photographers above, in Sacramento, California, on November 8. (Rich Pedroncelli/The Associated Press) Werksman suggested the couple solicited the donations from Weinstein at a time when Newsom must have been aware of her history. Did he take money “from someone you implied did something nasty to you?” Werksman asked. “It’s complicated,” Siebel Newsom replied. “So is this just politics,” Werksman asked, “taking money from someone who has done something despicable to your wife unless everyone knows?” Siebel Newsom denied Werksman’s suggestion that new details of the alleged assault that she had not described in interviews with prosecutors or in grand jury testimony emerged for the first time in her testimony Monday. She said she wanted to know why her story changed. “We’ve all heard you are very emotional,” he said. “You’ve had plenty of time to think about it in the last 17 years.” Siebel Newsom said she had spent much of the time trying not to think about it. “It is very traumatic, sir,” he said.
